Spooky's Stories in the virtual BMS world.
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Hi everyone,
Since i do now have a bit more time on my hands until i go back to training, i would like to share with the whole BMS community my passion for story telling.
By no means do i have the best references, but i simply would like to share what my immagination does to me everytime i fly BMS, i am sure we all had missions under BMS we wish we could tell or share … so i asked myself why not?
The following stories will be either completely fictionnal or will be based on events from some of my BMS missions. I will try my best to provide pictures from in game to actualy make the read more easy and less boring.
May the BMS Gods be with me on this foolish project,
Spooky.
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Looking forward to seeing your stories. Will keep an eye out. Thanks.
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Souda Airbase, 340 th Squadron “Alepou” for “FOX”:
Creta is a beautiful place to be, and Souda Airbase has this beautiful mountain background that simply is astonishingly captivating when covered in Snow. The contrast between beautiful nature and powerfull machines taxiing in the foreground is simply unique.
Souda airbase is the home of two fighter squadrons and one conversion unit for the F-16 Block 52 +, although the OCU uses aircraft’s from both 340 th and 343 rd squadron. Activty at Souda airbase is therefore constant during operations hours. Both runways do face the sea in both directions, which reduces the noise abatement problems.
Todays mission is a strike mission were we are going to loft GBU-12’s on a practice target at the sea. i fly as number 1 in the formation and i have spend the day of yesterday gathering informations and preparing the brieifing. Everything needs to be clear for everyone involved. Making sure all involved do understand their roles and the ones of the others is very important, especially when racing at 500 kts,200 feet above water in weather … you better be prepared. The mission of today is complex because we have the 339 SQN from Andravida playing red air with their F-4 Phantoms for us. make no mistake, those F-4’s are maybe no agility kings, but with the latest AUP upgrade they do present a serious threat, especially with the AIM-120 B AMRAAM, and they have a RIO in the back … add to that the fact that they love to prove they can still kick ass … we will have our hands full today. Their hoe base is close to ARAXOS, which is home to the 335 th SQN flying the Latest version of the F-16 in the Greek Air Force, so the boys from 339 are used to the F-16 … that is something i want everyone to keep in mind.
We need a gameplan against the F-4’s, they can carry more fuel, they have two engines, and they can carry 4 AIM-120’s each plus 4 AIM-9’s … more fuel for them means more options for BVR …because they know that WVR fight is not to their advantage especially since we have HMCS + IRIS-T missiles. They probably want to keep it BVR and make us run out of fuel so that we hit BINGO before we can get to the IP. Now they do not have any idea where we put the IP or what our attack axis is,they have no idea which target we are going to hit, they also have no idea what weapons we will employ or what profile we are going to fly …and neither do they know our time on target. But i bet they sat down with 338 squadron to figure out what a striker would do. 338 sqn also base at Andravida flies the F-4 AUP too, but their main task is strike with the use of Litening pods.
We as the attacker need to have an idea on what to expect from them,they will probably establish a CAP at mid altitude, probably between 10 000 and 15 000 feet, we actually have no idea, but that is what i would do if i wanted to defend. If they catch us at low altitude, they know that their AIm-120’s won’t be that effective against us, the game plan here is to be detected the latest possible and fire first … best would be to fly in such a way that we pass trough them without them noticing, bomb the target and take them from behind … that would be evil . But i am sure they don’t want that to happen.
We do carry AIM-120 C’s and that gives us an advantage and we know they want to avoid WVR … so why not make them run in such a way that one of us keeps them running and the other one goes for te strike ? Sounds like we need to split up at some point, but not for long. They have a station time to fulfill, they only know that we are going to strike in that timeframe … so fuel …even if they do have more …it needs to be sufficient for their staton time. The rules of engagement are very simple for today,they have the help from a radar station and our flight profile will make sure that we are declared hostiles in time for them to go BVR on us … it’s also the wole point for them …we will of course try to change that.
Other threat is the SAM-3 on target, not a strategical SAM, but still …when doing a loft attack …with LGB’s the SAM-3 becomes a nasty bugger, the missiles are not as hard to defeat as the SAM-6 …but still, it is a valuable threat.We will use ECM to get as close as possible to te target without being engaged. For that matter, we make sure that our attack heading is going to put our ECM system in an advantageous position. The egress route from target is also carefully studied and choosen. We only want 1 pass for obvious reasons, and for one less obvious reason; if we manage to make the F-4’s run …it will only be for a time, and we are the most vulnerable to them during our ingress from the IP to TGT, at the target and on egress directly after the target.
Another factor we really must take into consideration for today’s mission is the weather, we need to see and the TGP needs to see the target in time so that we can see the target at all in the TGP, else there is no point taking off at all. Another point is threat reaction, how do we react if fired at by the SAM-3 on target ? To answer this question we look at what we know from our on board sensors. We do have APSIS II on our Block 52+.
We have the AN/ALR-93, which once it detects a threat and classifies it, gives us a bearing and range … so in the case of our SAM-3, we know where and how far it will be from us at the moment we get shot at.
The other reason we look at the weather is because of the absolute humidity we will have in the air today, the IR picture we will have depends on the absolute humidity, too much of it and the IR picture fades/washes out … so basically we calculate how much picture degradation we will ave with today’s weather conditions. Today’s weather condition allow us to have a good picture, if our calculations are correct.
We do cover a lot of details during the brieifng in regards to how we will operate the LANTIRN/TGP during the ingress, andduring the attack. The way we configure our MFD’s for example, the TFR page should be monitored at all times and the page configuraion should be so that with few DMS inputs we access the important pages in regards to the master mode we are in.The squadron has standard way of doing things, but it makes sense to rebrief the grea lines of it.
We talk about or fuel our communications, our egress and we cover a lot of “what if” scenarios … the mission should last 1h30 minutes, more or less, depending on how we do deal with the threats en-route.
Briefing done, time to step to the planes, but before let’s go sign the papers and make sure we do take an airworthy plane. Looking for SNAGS, comments form previous flights, last inspections etc etc, afer that we head out to the van that will drop us of our respective aircraft shelters.
The drive to the aircraft shelter is a bit like a pre-room to the exam room, everyone is getting mentally ready, most of the guys don’t show excitement, but a cool professional attitude, last items a brought back to memory, some look out the van window to see if the weather really looks like what has been briefed. There is thistend among pilots, that the weather always looks worse or better than what has been briefed … the van is brought to an halt, my turn to step out, i give head nod to the other pilot and off i go.
Walking towards my aircraft i realize how beautiful the F-16 really is, that airplane has ‘swag’ … it’s a fighter pilot airplane, but you need to be a cool kid to fly it. The F-16 is an arrogant airplane. I give my ground crew a salute and we talk quickly about the plane, i give them a quick explanantion about my mission and we go for my walk-around. You want to really check and really pay attention to what you are looking at and avoid being an organic robot that just acts on muscle memory. Making sue you understand what you see and not simply pad the aircraft skin to reassure yourself you done a proper check.
Walk-around is done, now i am climbing up the ladder and i sit down in the cockpit, it feels good to sit there and watch the canopy come down on me, now i am isolated from the outside world, i have 360 view of the world and i feel like i am riding on it !!
Pre-start,after-start, and before taxi checklist have been done, the taxi clearance has been taken as well as the departure clearance. The F-16 slowly walks out of his shelter, first comes the pitot probe, the nose cone and the canopy, finally the whole body of the viper comes out, and in the evening light, the gracious forms of the F-16 are put in evidence. A slight push on the brakes, the nose wheel sinks on itself and the airplane comes a smooth halt. Releasing pressure on the brakes and let the airplane walk down the yellow line to the runway. The cockpit instruments are giving this …. sophisticated atmosphere to the cockpit. The taxito the runway is always a moment of concentration … you want to stay on the yellow line, you want to get at the EOR quickly but not above taxi speed. You can’t help but call back to memeory some critical items for the mission, speeds, bank angles, etc etc …
At the EOR the airplane comes to another stop, last chance checks are carried out by the ground crews, safety pins are removed from the weapons, in this case the only live weapons on board are the 2xGBU-12 we both of us carry. In the cockpit i dim the instruments lights a bit more, adjusting to them to the outside ambient lighting. Slowly i can feel this little twinkling feeling in my stomach, before every dusk strike i feel the same, flying at dusk or at night always feels special …you reallyfeel like you are lonely …but you also feel lethal. Night attacks do have a psychological impact on the ennemy, at night one can have the feeling that no one can see you, but we at the 340 sqn we can see you. I can only immagine how it looks like to see 2xGBU-12 silently gliding trough the air at night … and ‘shack!!!’
We are getting close to the takeoff time, time to line-up and let the fun start. Lining up on the runway i can see the runway edge lights that draw a small highway for myself, the road to the sky of Creta. A look to my right, i can see my wingman’s plane in position, i’m checking for open speedbrakes, for any sort of leak or anything that looks out of normal, the remaining day-light allows us to do the check.
My left hand pushes the hrottle to MIL power, engine instruments look good, so far so good, lifting the throttle to go in afterburner and there it is, the kick in the butt we all look for at the beginning of the takeoff. Some rudder inputs to converge on the runway centerline, speed comes up very fast, disengaging nose-wheel steering, kicking slighty the rudders to keep on the center-line, refusal speed comes up, we press on, rotation speed, nose comes up 13 degrees and off we go. The afterburner flames graze the runway and the mighty Viper takes the air. The gear comes up, and the beast is accelerating to 300 kts, i retard the power to MIL and let it go to 350 kts while my wingmen catches up on me.
On my left MFD the LIST page is displayed and gives me some info about the faults that occured since i started the engine and brought up the electrical system to life. Nothing critical to the mission, DMS left and back to my FCR page. Steerpoint 2 has been called up and we turn towards it. We could have carried out a SID, but seriously, with the weather we have a Souda there is no need to waste fuel on a SID, so i requested a visual departure, we’ll get back to IFR on the first portion of our flight to the target.
More writing later
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:munch:
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Looking forward to more spooky. I know exactly how you feel, this sim not only immerses, but inspires! Funnily enough, I wrote my first ever mission report a few days ago because the mission I flew was so noteworthy. Never written about a game before in my life! Don’t let this die, I love reading about other flyers’ experiences in Falcon.
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Just a silly nitpick, HAF’s F-16C-52+ have the ASPIS II with AN/ALR-93, no ALR-66… :mrgreen:
Looking forward to more as well, well written !
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Actually all HAF F-16 fleet have the II suite, the old I was upgraded.
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Thanks for the heads up guys !!
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Nothing beats a good old hoe base.
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Good storytelling uncle Spooky… Keep it up my friend
Greetings
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Nice read! Looking forward to more please.
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Hello Guys, I have been away from writing, mainly due to professional reasons. I just passed selections tests for the airline and i am awaiting the result … so between tomorrow and tuesday next week i will know if i am going to be a Q400 first officer.
So, so … i had time to fly a bit. So next post is about a mission i flew in campaign.
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Oho… squadron commander in South Korea … talking about something here lol … don’t ya worry, it’s all virtual. In my virtual world and mind, a Belgian detachement of 6 F-16’s has been deployed to South Korea. We are here to help the South Korean give their northern neighbour a big reality check.
The North has been fooling around for some time now, and somehow it got out of hands … and unable to recognize it got too far they just kept pushing … time to show them how the game is played. Our mission is to defend Seoul from any air or ground threat, with 6 airplanes we are more here to support that effort than actually leading it.
Our Rules of engagement are restrictive. We are not allowed to cross the border in any case, we are not allowed to go after a target on the other side of the border. The trick is that, since the hostilities started … the border was pushed a bit North … so we actually are flying into North Korea, but just enough so that we can get artillery units who with the former border were immune to us but able to hit SEOUL.
Air to Air is something we will be confronted with, a lot ! W expect a wall of Mig’s … but due to our ROE …we can not shoot at something beyond the border and that goes for air to air threats as well. By the time they cross the border we can engage, defensive or offensive. But we understand that we will be defensive a lot. This really changes the way we will fight … and how we will react to air to air threats.
We are deployed to Kimahe International Airport, in the southern part of the country. This is good for us, the F-16 AM is still a F-16 A performance wise, and the engien is not as powerfull as on the Block 30, 40 or 50. We do not have the same climb perofrmances, especially with bombs unde the wings, and most of the time we will fly with an ALQ-131 under the belly, which puts quiet some drag. In a typical air to ground configuration we would climb at 350 KTS and to be effective once getting to Mach 0.75 … well in the A model it takes more time to get there. In regards to that, deploying to Kunsan or Osan was a bit non-sense … we would have to make a flight plan that allows us to climb to our Flight Level and then give us enough time to accelerate and …by the time that happens we are at the DMZ and probably already comitting for some Mig’s. Kimahe INTL gives us some straight line distance to be comfortable. On the other side we suck less fuel at high altitude and we perform a bit less than a Block 50 or 40 …and 30 of course up high. In MIL power we can count on something around 4500 LBS/Hour at FL300.
Our first mission is a Pre-planned Cas, we are tasked to strike an artillery unit that is along the DMZ, in the zone were we are allowed to operate. The South Koreans and Americans have recon airplanes at disposition. The USAF has U-2’s flying out of Osan, and they provided some good pictures for a variety of targets along the DMZ. We also have coordinates, and this is very useful for us today. We have GBU-38’s available and the weather is supposed to be foggy anyway. Those data date from before the war errupted, but there has been recon flights made since then to update the infos. I immagine the effect of a GBU-38 on an artillery piece …lodaded … double bang.
We for sure will need the ALQ-131, the threat is real, old but still a threat. If it was for the SAM’s only it would be okay, but AAA and air threats in the middle of that … it’s going to be hard to focus on everything at once. As we study the map, we look at the estimated positions of the strategic SAM’s. Well … if you look at it, you will realize that by flying parallel to the DMZ you are actually beaming a lot of them … so we look at having an attack axis that makes us fly westward. We will take-off, climb, refuel, fly on a northern heading, then fly on a eastern heading and then come west, egress south. Most of the ennemy fighter have to fly on a southern heading …so we beam them too. Okay .i agree that we do not take advantage of the ALQ-131 that way … but a simple 90 degree turn to the left to avoid a threat from the north is better flown at high altitude in full combat load than a 180 … you can question my reasonning …but at high altitude …it counts.
Why do i want to stay high like that ? Well … in case (and it will happen) some party poopers cross the border to get us … we will have AIM-120’s go down on them instead of climbing to get them. I think about the MIG-23 … that weirdo lihts the burner and outruns your AIM-120 … we will see if from 30 000 feet he can beat the kinetic of the 120.
will write more later …